Wednesday, 20 June 2018

Nose - Shiny glazed mineral, with iced rings and a some rolling tobacco. Lemon ice cream (soft) and some leather. It has a quite compelling wood to the nose, no nonsense and high quality. Brighter and riper with water.

Finish - Short, hard and astringent, lemon sherbets and caramel. Much fruiter with water but this is where the summer fun ends to an extent.

A lovely nose and delivery to this summer drammer, a bit harsh at the end.

Linkwood 11 years old, 60.9% A

Hogshead

Nose - Light and professional, with fabric freshener, birthday candles and hand soap or moisturising cream - quite cold. French apple tart with water, boiled orange peel, a lot more wax; the beginnings of a lovely cask which develops and sweetens over time.

Body - Richer than the nose suggested, fizzing, some vanilla pastry, quite a lot of oil, with liquorice on repeated sips. Water opens it up, bringing baked apples and more orange zest, perhaps a little coriander.

Finish - Long, fizzing but not bitter, a little bit more liquorice and some hard oak. Softer with water, Sazerac.

Quite a hard, young whisky (in a bracingly Spring-like way) which opens up nicely with water. It grew on me.

Glentauchers 20 years old, 50.9% A⊕+

Refill barrel

Nose - Deep and beautifully fruited, with that sublime but understated complexity that old Glentauchers pulls off all the time. Green apple chews, warm sweet white wine from yesterday, lipstick. Perfect.

Finish - Almost salty it's so dry. Quite spicy with pronounced wood at the end, bourbon fans would like this but that fruity Scotch side of the coin means it doesn't offend me as it otherwise would.

Utterly wonderful, the epitome of balance (and hence drinkability) and fruit in a whisky with big bags of tobacco too. Big props for being a whisky I didn't want to risk spoiling by adding water. Note that this isn't in your face, it isn't crushingly intense, it's just right.

Bealach Ruadh, 10 years old, 57.1% A-

Bourbon hogshead

Nose - Bright and dirty, gunpowder, iron filings and hot sand. Very sweet in front of the fried panko and crushed peanuts. Sweeter with water, more mineral.

Body - A gentle, white wine character in front of the nutty, coastal Caol Ila, slightly charred on the panko crumbs, charcoal even.

Finish - Dirty and coastal, a big bite out of the lip salve. Bitter peat at the end, burnt again. A little gentler with water, apple and swimming pool.

Robust and challenging although lures you in at first. Quite dirty, quite coastal, like crab in a Chinese restaurant.

Thursday, 14 June 2018

New packaging for the Port Charlotte 10 years old Scottish Barley, which I just love. Let’s not lie to ourselves and pretend we don’t like the bottle the whisky comes in, it’s all part of the joy. This packaging is brilliant.

Now, I was actually (along with many others) sent a whole bottle of this to review, which I have been taking my time with and making the most of. That doesn’t happen very often but I am not letting it influence my judgement. I am letting the packaging influence it, but not the free whisky.

Body - Sharp but serious, burnt orange caramel, bracingly bitter but tempered by Refreshers. That fruity bitterness is along the lines of a DIPA, the intensity of the sugar and overall profile carries the bitterness well. Sweeter and less bracing with water, seriously fruity and the bitterness is well balanced if still structural.

Finish - Bitter tannins but rich and biscuity, grapefruit zest and tropical juice at the end.

This is exactly the kind of young, bright, technically excellent but interesting whisky that launches long obsessions with independent single casks. This is seriously good, my opinion of Glenburgie continues to rise.

Nose - Somewhere between ripe apple and apple chews, yet another tropically intense Benrinnes nose - good toffee depth behind this and that cigar box style of old cask. Fruit and warm, understated wood. Even fruitier with water.

Body - Beautifully fruited again, intense and surprising at first, sweetshop near the end of the delivery with blasts of aspirin and a touch of liquorice in the middle. More robust, oddly, with water, more drying.

Finish - Long and fizzing, twists of orange zest and Campari, wood and musk at the end. Water brings a little fresh mint leaf, chewed grass.

Another superb Benrinnes. Someone said to me (and it's non-sold-out status at time of writing confirms) that people don't generally go crazy for Benrinnes. I can't see why, it's up there with Linkwood for dependably excellent, tropical Scotch.

Nose - Young and hard, wood glue like the Glenburgie but much less forgiving; unripe pear, porridge oats, Pritt Stick and a punch in the nose. There's wax and musk and a sort of cold fruit, maybe gooseberry fool, underneath but I think it needs water to get there. After sipping there's an instant coffee granules and starfruit feel to it - all very one dimensional and cold though. Much better with water - strawberry cheesecake, malted ice cream - but it still has that hard candy shell thing I associate with English whisky (Adnams – I do more often than not really enjoy English Whisky Company whisky).

Body - Much better than the nose, the fruit is still hard but it's sweeter and richer, the oats are extremely present. It's strange how different not-Scotch is, I'm always amazed at the contrast. Better with water, the fruit becomes somewhat roasted, there's a feeling of soft blue cheese and oatcakes, black pepper, slightly musky.

Finish - Short, cloying, awkward. Much better with water, I like the cheesy thing.

Nose - Bright and surprisingly hard for the age and distillery, with hand soap, candy necklace and royal icing. Crushed ice. After sipping, the nuttiness continues in the nose with some crayon. It's very austere. Carrot cake with water, some swimming pool.

5 years in Goa, 1 year in Campbeltown. Refill bourbon barrel. They have to bottle them in India, shipped to Scotland and then disgorged into a cask there. Then rebottled after some time in the warehouse later. We had a cask at the warehouse tour at Campbeltown festival this year, which was fantastic.

Nose - Brown sugar, hot malt extract, as sweet and dark and surprisingly complex as they always are (the three PJs from Cadenhead's I've had that is!). Damp cigar wrappers, damp cloths on a hot radiator, roasted plums, pomegranate molasses. But nutty, very masculine.

Finish - Slightly shorter and more one dimensional that the initial delivery suggested. A little clove chocolate though, bourbon soaked raisins. Still a rich and lip smacking experience, vanilla cream and icing.

Somewhere there's a cask that spent 5 years in Goa and is destined to have 15 years in Campbeltown, and that will be very, very special. For now these casks are brilliant drinkers.

Bowmore 2001, 17 years old, 53.8% B+

[sold out]

Bourbon hogshead.

Nose - A musky one at first, then fruit polos with French custard tart (maybe strawberry glazed), planed pine planks, cracked salt crust and ice cream wafers. More of that fruit with water, more cheap ice cream too, and a welcome medicinal note.

Body - Sweet but gentle and salty, like a cold seafood platter… and a Mr. Whippy. Then there's a big, tarry peat - I hesitate to go to rope as it's all a bit stereotypical but I can only say it how I find it! Softer and creamier with water.

Finish - Long and surprisingly dirty. Numbing wood, quite harsh by the end.

Having lived through endless months of mid-teens-refill-sherry Bowmore a few years ago (to the point of having to stop myself buying them), this is quite ordinary I'm afraid. Unlike the…

Laphroaig 1998, 19 years old, 53.4% A⊕-

[sold out]

Nose - A fresh, fizzing, musky, estery one on the nose. Balanced sugars, some plastic, dirty medicinal (sort of TCP but more a cream, more bandage). Baked apple and dried orange slices, ozone. Almost in "old wound" territory, certainly some overheated electrics.

Nose - Sharp, slightly sour with magic balloons and green apple. Wood chips, cut grass and a little menthol cigarette. Smells a bit like cognac mixed with some crazy wooded rum - it's not elegant but it is full of character and HQ cask. More "cognac" with water, more sweetshop too.

Body - Varnish, waxed wood, charcoal and lolly stick. A new bag of damp compost. The dibber in a sherbet dibdab. Some good dryness with water, dustier.

Finish - Long and extremely oily, big fruits at the end. Rum and raisin, more menthol.

Scoring this "as a whisky" this is delicious, quite a bruiser and full of excellent wood and fruit character.

Miltonduff 2008, 10 years old, 55.7% B-

Bourbon hogshead

[sold out]

Nose - Dry, biscuity (actually a bit like wood pellets), rich cereal and just a little dirty. Meaty but mineral, some iron, some pork. One of "those" bourbon casks that everyone thinks is really a sherry cask.

Body - Soft, balanced sugars, cakey and more of that sulphur from the nose. Sweet, hard candy shells on top.

Finish - Medium to short, quite bitter and hot, lonely wood at the end, perhaps with a little balsamic vinegar.

For some reason this reminds me of cat biscuits. If this was SMWS I would guess a 3 month PX finish. I'm not a huge fan although it does have some crowd pleasing charms. Probably fare quite well at a whisky festival.

Nose - Deep and earthy. There was a flash of gummy sweets and rich waxy cask but the earth took over almost immediately - loam, compost, some chews, cadbury snack! bars. Curly wurlys? The fruit comes back after a while, with some sawdust and gloss paint, but it's all a little clumsy.

Body - Loads more milk chocolate, biscuit and some pear. A great fruit to cake balance, chew sweets warm and soft out your pocket. Weaker with water, less interesting.

Finish - Medium to long, a little astringent, a little thin, an odd tinge of sulphur which might be from previous whiskies.